Miscellanea Magica
by MuggleBeene
Summary: A series of short pieces that are collected into one place, different ideas, genres, AU, etc, all possible. Not connected to Professor Muggle series unless noted. Characters listed are for all entries, not just current chapter.
1. The Language of Birds

**The Language of Birds**

He knew it was late when he finally made it home, and hoped that everyone was asleep, but the sound of small feet running towards the Floo made him sigh. He looked up from untying his boots and fixed her with a look.

"Rosie, what are you doing awake?" He saw his daughter hesitate for a moment but then she just barreled towards him, throwing her arms around his neck so that it caught him slightly off-balance. He laughed softly as he put an arm under her and held her. "What am I gonna do with you, pixie-bum?"

"Am not a pixie-bum."

Her small voice gave the response to the question as always, but there was something in her voice that led him to believe something was amiss. "Where's your mum?"

"With Hugo."

"Ah." He nodded, shifted her over to his side and untied his remaining boot with one hand, kicking the boot off finally with the toes from his stockinged foot. A quick look at the clock above the mantel and he knew that the difficulty of getting Hugo to sleep had continued. The healers said it would be fine, that he would just work his way through it, but it still worried them. He felt little fingers playing with his beard, and gave out a small, amused sigh. "And you can't sleep?"

"No, Daddy. I need a story."

"Right, then." He stood up, shifted Rosie over to his hip and made a small detour through the kitchen on the way to her room. As he had hoped there was a plate sitting out on the table, covered with a preservation spell, though he did note the sandwich wasn't as thick as he hoped, which only reminded him that with Hermione spending time with Hugo he needed to go to the shops. Those thoughts quickly receded and he made his way up the small flight of steps and opened the door to Rosie's room.

As soon as he sat her down on the bed Rosie hurriedly crawled under the duvet, pushed her pillows behind her and pulled her stuffed panda bear close.

Shaking his head slightly he sat down on the chair next to her bed. "You need to lay down, Rosie, this is a sleepy story, not..."

"Not an Unca George story." She gave a disappointed face and slid further under the covers, finally pulling her panda from under the covers so its head rested on the pillows as well.

"Good girl. So tonight do you want magic or no magic?" He hoped it was a magic story, since when it came to the Muggle stories that Hermione told her he mostly didn't remember them except for the one with the pigs blowing down houses. As she kept trying to decide, still delaying sleep, he also hoped it wasn't Babbity Rabbity again.

"Both, Daddy. I want a story with both."

"Alright, both it is. But you have to promise to go to sleep after, right?"

"Promise."

"Ok." He smoothed some of her hair with his hand, moving it away from her face and leaned back. After a few seconds he looked around her room and saw a colouring book. It wasn't much to start with, but he had an idea. "Once upon a time, a long time ago before anyone you know was born, even the oldest person alive right now..."

"Even Minerva?" She saw her daddy look at her sternly. "Sorry."

It had been all he could to not burst out laughing. "Rosie, this is a listening story. Yes, even Minerva. A long time ago there lived a boy and a girl..."

 _In the country were two houses that were close to each other. Since there weren't very many people around when the boy and the girl got old enough they would play together. But for some reason the girl couldn't talk. She could understand people, and used her hands to talk, but she couldn't say words like other people. To the boy it didn't matter, because that was just the way she was, kind of like how your mum has curly hair and I have red hair, just the way it was. But that didn't matter to the boy, because he was her friend._

 _As they got older it came time to go to school and they had to go to different schools; she went to a school where things would be easier for her to learn and eventually he went to Hogwarts, because he was a wizard._

 _They didn't like being at school without the other, and would write letters. He told her all about his school, what he could without telling her about magic, and she told him all about her school._

"Not fair."

Ron paused for a second upon hearing the soft remark from his daughter. He leaned over and tucked her in a bit tighter, murmuring 'it'll be fine, just listen.'

 _When he came home from Hogwarts for Christmas that first year he was really happy to see her but when he did she seemed sad to him. Over the years he'd seen how she could somehow be close to birds and other animals, how they wouldn't run away from her like they did him, but how she could get really close. Now it looked like the birds were even closer to her and she'd feed them scraps out of her pockets and whistle to them an' they'd whistle back._

"Like Hagrid."

He leaned down again. "Rose..." She said nothing but scrunched up her face in apology and clutched her panda tighter. He leaned back.

 _The boy knew from Hogwarts that how the animals were around her was different than most, so he asked his mum and dad about her. They told him that even though her parents didn't have magic that the girl had some magic but not enough to go to Hogwarts. Remember, this was a long time ago and things are different now. It made the boy sad, because his friend should be able to go to Hogwarts, she should be able to see magic like he did._

 _When he went back to Hogwarts the boy began to study, he read a lot of books in the library looking for an answer on how to fix his friend, but there wasn't a book that could answer that question. Not all questions are answered in books. When he went home that summer from Hogwarts he spent as much time with the girl as possible and realised that he didn't want to change her, he liked her just the way she was, and if he changed her she wouldn't be the girl that was his friend anymore. Instead he remembered what his professor had told him and made a decision, he was going to try to learn some very hard magic._

 _So he studied and learned and worked hard. He studied and worked on it for six years until right before the holidays he did it. When he came home he was so excited to see her and barely ate any supper that night so he could see her._

 _She was out in the fields, birds all around her. She kept feeding them and whistling to them as he came up to her. She was happy to see him and they talked as they always did, her with her hands and him with words and hands together, until he made her promise that what happened next would be a secret that she could never tell._

 _He thought really hard about it and did it like he'd practised over and over until he did it, he turned into a bird. It wasn't a bird with all sorts of colours or a really big bird or anything, just a little brown sparrow, but he hopped up on her finger._

 _She whistled but he didn't hear the whistle, he heard her say 'you are such a pretty little bird.'_

 _When he was a bird, and she whistled to him, he could hear her just like you can hear me talk. Before they were very good friends but now they were the best of friends and were friends the rest of their lives._

He looked down to see Rosie yawn widely. "Best friends. Like Panda."

"Yep, just like Panda." He leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. "Now go to sleep. Love you."

"Love you, Daddy."

He tucked her in a bit tighter, pulled his long frame out of the small chair and started to make his way into the kitchen when he saw her out of the corner of his eye. Nodding his head towards his destination he didn't say anything until he was sure their voices wouldn't be heard.

"Hugo?"

"He's fine. I think it's passed now." She pointed to the chair. "I'll get you some milk."

After popping the statis spell on the plate Ron slowly took a bite. He'd ignored it long enough and now it was catching up to him, the fatigue. As the milk appeared next to him he felt his wife's arms around his shoulders.

"That was a very sweet story. Where'd that come from?"

"Dunno." He chewed and swallowed. "Improvised." He felt her head nestle against his. "How much did you hear?"

"Enough. Best friends forever, huh? You didn't marry them off and have them live happily ever after?"

"Don't want her to think that's the only thing that happpens, you know. Married, end of story. More to it than that."

"Smart man. Please shower before coming to bed, you smell atrocious." Before he could answer she kissed him again and then left the kitchen, whistling softly.

He sat there for a moment, took a contented sigh, and began eating.

 _ **A/N: So this is the first in what will be several shorts, one shots, etc. This particular story, well at least Ron's goodnight story, has been floating around in a notebook for years. Hopefully this series will clean out the notebook and free up time to finish the big, multi-chapter pieces.**_

 _ **As always, thanks for reading and review if you wish.**_


	2. Apples, Trees, Bubbles, Etc

**Apples, Trees, Bubbles, Etc.**

Even though she'd had one of those days, the days where you wanted to hex everybody in the office thoroughly, she knew that when her mum said that it was a 'family event' that there wasn't really an option to skip out. The food would be good, as always, but that really wasn't the problem. It was all the questions.

As she opened the door to her flat she knew something was off. Something wasn't quite right. Something in the shape of her older brother, sitting in the chair near the window, reading a book and trying to act nonchalant about breaking into her place.

Fine. Two could play that game. Acting as if it was nothing out of the ordinary she slipped off her heels, opened her refrigerator and stuck her head in, as if looking for something. "Hello, Jamie. So what's Mum having tonight? Is this a Potter thing or a Weasley thing?"

"So you don't care that I let myself in? That I completely bypassed all your security? What kind of Unspeakable are you that..."

"I made an exception for family members." She pulled out a small bottle of flavored spring water, popped the lid and took a sip. "But I left some stuff on just for you."

James rolled his eyes and unfolded his legs with his hands. "Yeah, real funny. As soon as I can walk you're toast." As if a switch had been flipped his voice changed, reminding Lily of when they were children in the sing-song way he spoke. "Anyway...do you know why we're having this? It's a Weasley thing. All hands Weasley thing. Charlie's in from Romania level Weasley thing. Mum went and got her _hair_ _done_ Weasley thing."

"Really?" That stopped Lily from taking another sip. Her mum was not very fussy, only going to the hairdresser for big things like weddings and official Ministry functions. A Saturday dinner for family? "Ok, you obviously know something and just couldn't wait to tell someone. You're telling me, so it's about Al, isn't it?"

"Annoying Slytherin."

"Gossipy Ravenclaw." She stared at him for a moment. "Well?"

"Yes, you're right." He sank back in the chair. "How long until my legs work?"

"How long have you been here?"

"Um..." He glanced at his watch. "Ten, fifteen minutes."

After a sigh Lily shook her head at him. "I'll put the kettle on."

If she was being honest with herself, as she heard James turn on the wireless, the Unspeakables were all horrible gossips. Granted, their topics were a little more esoteric than the 'which Chaser is looking for a new team because of blah blah blah' stuff that James made a living with, but it was still gossip. Both part of their jobs, really, if you thought about it. Instead of talking about it on the wireless like her brother, though, hers was classified by the Ministry.

Once she'd handed him a mug of tea she sat down across from him, took a deep breath and waited. And waited. James took a sip of tea, stared at her with a goofy smile, and just sat there. Eventually he brightened, nodded and leaned forward. "Ok, so..."

"You were waiting on your legs, right?"

He tapped the top of his thighs with his fingers. "If I have to wait, you have to wait. Felt my toes. So do you want to know or do you just want to show up and..."

"Spill. What did good ol' Albus Severus do this time?"

James pulled his chin back and looked at her oddly? "How did you know this was about Al?"

"It's always about Al, isn't it? Think about it."

Feeling his heels finally regain some life in them, albeit with minor prickling sensation, James thought back on things and realised that Lily was right. Everything from convincing Aunt Luna that he absolutely had to have a Niffler and then taking the thing to Gringotts 'accidentally'; sneaking into the Harpies dressing room before one of his mum's games and then delaying the start of that game because he was uncontrollably streaking through the stadium on a stolen broom; attempting to simultaneously date a girl from each house during his fifth year at Hogwarts; being simultaneously dumped in public at the Battle of Hogwarts Memorial in front of the press...and those were just the ones before leaving Hogwarts that came to mind immediately.

"You're right. And to think I'm the one named after the troublemakers." James snorted. "Like I could ever get away with a thing. They watched me like a hawk."

Lily sighed. "Welcome to the Song of James, Al Gets Away With Everything, verse two-hundred, same as the previous one hundred and ninety-nine. I know, I was there, and a target for a lot of it. And you know what happens when someone tells him he's 'just like his father.' Goes mental."

"Dying his hair, growing that pitiful beard, it was all rubbish. I did think drawing the lightning bolt on his forehead, then making a circle around it with a slash through it with Mum's Never-Fade lipstick when Hermione made Minister was rather inspired, though." He waved her off. " But Al coming back from Canada would always mean a family dinner. I mean, this has been on the calendar from moment he took that apprenticeship with the broom company. So why would Charlie be coming over?"

"And why would Mum get her hair done?" Lily tilted her head. "Calves yet?"

After tapping them he nodded positively. "Yes. And precisely. It's because he's bringing someone with him. Someone female. Someone female who, according to Lolo Criswinder at the Canadian Quidditch Weekly magazine, who is wearing a ring. On that finger."

"Oh. OH." Lily sat up straighter. "This ought to be good. I mean, oooh. So Mum knows who..."

"No!" James gestured emphatically. "Mum doesn't know who, nobody does. That's the thing. And after his last girlfriend, the one who drug him through the press after their breakup, you remember what Dad said, right?"

Lily nodded, took out her wand and tapped her throat. The voice that came out sounded precisely like her father. "Albus, for the love of Merlin, next time pick someone who doesn't get us in the papers? For everything? Please? And James be nice to your sister."

After the shudder subsided James shook his head. "Don't do that. That's just wrong. I don't even want to know how you do that."

With a second tap of her wand Lily's voice returned to normal. "Unspeakable. Wouldn't tell you. Sorry."

"No, you're not, but that's not important. It can't be that bad, right? Why is he keeping it this secret? More importantly FIX MY DAMN LEGS!"

"Oh fine, whinger." Lily twirled the end of her wand in a small circle and pointed it at her brother.

After the pale, blue light dissipated over his legs he stood up, relieved but then suddenly irritated. "You could have done that right away, couldn't you?"

With a completely fake expression of innocence Lily shook her head. "No, afraid not, had to at least get up to the calves before it would be effective. Or would it?"

"Remind me to tell Mum about your trip to Slough."

"You wouldn't!"

James shrugged and headed to the door. "See you there."

-ooo-

At the edge of the Burrow are a series of trees, fairly young trees, but with branches perfectly spaced for climbing. All of the Weasley grandchildren loved to climb them, but at the moment nobody was in their branches; instead two camp chairs were unfolded, occupied by a redhead and a blonde.

"Nothing yet." Lily handed the Omnioculars over. "But I think Gran is ready to burst."

Settling the Omnioculars on her lap Lucy took a drag off of her cigarette. "When _isn't_ Gran ready to burst?"

"True. Are you not going to look?" Taking back the offered seeing instrument Lily chuckled. Of all her cousins Lucy was her favourite; besides being closest in age there was the fact that both had been sorted into Slytherin, she was hilarious most of the time and...well, she was just not your normal Weasley. Not like Rose, who was so perfect at things most of the time it made Lily want to vomit. Lucy just didn't seem to care, which drove her parents batty. Not true, of course, she was a smart person; she just didn't like playing the official Ministry game. One of the reasons she worked in the Office of Records; paperwork she could deal with, people not so much.

"Fuck!" Lucy threw down her cigarette, smushed it out with her foot and vanished the butt. "They're here. Gimme those." After a moment she laughed. "Well, whoever had the bet that Al's girl would be a redhead has lost. Blonde, really blonde. So much for that 'he's just like his father, Potter boys and redheads' shite. C'mon, let's go."

As they entered the warm chaos of a Burrow event Lily saw James talking to Al, shaking the girl's hand, and doing his level best to stifle a laugh. She'd seen that face way too often to know that something was up. Feeling Lucy elbow her she muttered, "I know, I know, shhhh" and then made her way over.

The girl smiled as they came closer. "Oh, you must be Lily. Al has told me so much about you. What he can, that is."

Lily shook her hand. She was shorter than Al, but not by much, and they way she'd said that last part, intimating that she knew that Lily was an Unspeakable, was done with the slightest hint of a smirk. Good sign. "Don't believe anything he says. Very nice to meet you."

"Lily, uh, hi Luce..." Al blinked rapidly, took a deep breath and smiled. "Jennifer, this is my sister Lily and my cousin Lucy. Jennifer's my..."

"Fiancée. Yeah, the rock was a hint." Lucy put out her hand. "Lucy Weasley."

Al's fiancée shook her hand. "Jennifer Beasley. So nice to meet you."

"Wait." Not letting go of Jennifer's hand Lucy shifted slightly, as if trying to get a better look at a painting in a gallery. "Do they always call you Jennifer?"

"Well, no." Letting go of Lucy's hand she turned to Al. "My family calls me Jenny."

At that moment Lily felt an arm on her shoulder and looked up to see that James had just stepped between her and Lucy, draping an arm over each. "Sweetie, if your middle name is Molly I don't think we can take it."

After giving Al a look, Jenny smirked. "You're in luck, then. But don't use it, please. It's awful. Hyperion. Family name, apparently, from my mother's side."

Lily felt it first, before she heard it; her brother's laugh started low but then grew until pretty much most of the family was looking at him oddly.

"Quit it, Jay! It's not that awful of a middle name. I'm the one with Severus, for fuck's sake." Al looked angrily at his brother while he put an arm around his rather confused fiancée.

"No no no no!" James reached forward and took Jenny's hands. "It's not about your name, love. Well it is, but about your last name. I just realised, you're Artemis Beasley's daughter." Turning to the others James didn't see any change in their confused expressions. "Artemis Beasley manages the Canadian national Quidditch...she's...this will be news, whether Dad likes it or not." He turned back to Jenny. "I'm sorry, I would say it's usually not like this but it's usually like this. Has he told your family what they're in for?"

"Yes, to some extent." Jenny smiled. "Mom said it was ironic, coming back here, since her family left a while back." She looked at Al. "I told you that, right?"

"Uh...don't remember." Al saw his sister giving him one of those looks. "We haven't been together that long, ok?"

Lily started to give him crap but was elbowed by Lucy. "Well, welcome to the family. C'mere, Lily, let's get a drink." As they made their way towards the table filled with drinks, weaving through family members, Lily felt the tumblers start falling into place. By the time they got to the table and took a drink she was pretty sure she'd made the connections.

"I figured out who she looks like." Lucy took a big swig of beer. "Scorpius. Hair colour and..."

"I think she's his cousin. Second cousin. Some sort of cousin. Through Lucius." Lily took a beer and watched Lucy seem to deflate. "Stole your thunder? Sorry, it's a work thing that I can't really...let's just say the family trees of all Death Eaters are well known for a reason and leave it that, ok? It'd take me a few minutes to verify, but..."

"Fine." Reaching into her jeans she pulled out a cigarette and lit it, then waving it slightly. "This? At this point nobody will even notice. Well, I _was_ thinking about sending an owl to this reporter I'm sort of sleeping with and imaging the headlines ALBUS POTTER ENGAGED TO JENNY BEASLEY and then just sort of throwing in that she's probably a Malfoy or something but..."

"Bit mean, isn't it? She seems nice." Lily sighed. "But we can't call her Jenny. We need something else. For her sake. Hell, for ours; I don't think she could survive another Burrow do without James saying...wait. Has she met Uncle George yet?"

"Fuck." Lucy dodged an apple that swirled around her head. Not even looking she pretended to toss the cigarette on the ground and yelled "FINE, DAD."

"Uh..." Lily looked over to Lucy. "She's coming this way. Just her."

"Really? Hmmm." Lucy turned her back to the party, took another drag and exhaled. Before she knew it there was Jenny. "Sooo...the Burrow, huh?"

Jenny's eyes widened. "Al told me it would be...well, yeah." After a moment of hesitation she sighed. "D'you have an extra one?"

"YES!" Lucy pumped a fist. "I'm not the only one, see? See, Lils?"

"It's disgusting, but go right ahead." Lily stepped aside and watched as Lucy lit Jenny's cigarette with the end of her wand.

Once a long drag was taken and expelled, Jenny's shoulders sagged. "Circe, I haven't had one in ages, but this..."

"It's usually a shitstorm here, but you and Al upped the ante." Lucy took a drag and exhaled. "I don't usually have one here, Gran goes mental, but with all the Weasleys and I mean all the Weasleys here it just makes me want to lose it. I won't say anything to Al, if you want. I mean, Dad's been on me for ages to quit, and he's been trying stuff with Uncle George to make me quit…

"Bubble." Lily elbowed her cousin. "Bubble on it's way. Two bubbles."

Lucy waved her away and kept talking to Jenny. "So one of the littles has some bubbles out, that's nice. Anyway..."

"No, _bubbles_." Lily grabbed Lucy's arm and turned her around.

Lucy saw what was approaching and realised that it wasn't normal almost instantaneously; bubbles are rarely four feet tall and moving towards a person at a rapid rate of speed. The fact that they were going against the wind was remarked upon afterwards. Almost instinctively Lucy threw down her cigarette and ducked behind the table. This left one person standing upright with a lit cigarette; Jenny Beasley.

The first bubble surrounded Jenny's hand, the hand with the cigarette, shrinking down to make a quick seal against her wrist. The second bubble, however, expanded and then encapsulated Jenny. Completely. Her exhale of surprise combined with the timing of it all had her cough, the subsequent smoke contained within the bubble, turning it bright blue.

"Merlin's balls!" Lily stood there in shock as Lucy sat back on the grass as if stunned, both of them watching as Al's fiancée floated above the ground by a couple of feet, still contained in bubbles. It was obvious that Jenny was trying to get out, smacking her hands against the surface of the bubble, but instead of breaking or tearing it simply expanded and then returned to it's perfectly round shape. Lily took it all in as the extended family gathered around the bubble, Percy yelling at Lucy, Al yelling at George, James just laughing…

Later, when the bubbles burst and things went back to as normal as they were ever going to be, Lily found Lucy.

"Ladies and gentlemen, for their first dance, Albus and Bubbles Potter."

And that is how Jenny Potter, nee Beasley, became Bubbles. The press had a field day with Jenny's name until a series of interviews with Al's family popularised the nickname of Bubbles. Lucy thoroughly liked it because despite the family connections no real Malfoy would ever tolerate being called Bubbles. Also, nobody ever smoked out at the Burrow ever again. Just in case.

 _ **A/N: Just a one-off, though I do like Lucy quite a bit in this one. That may carry over into another story somewhere.**_


	3. The Heir of the House of Malfoy

**The Heir of the House of Malfoy**

The light was fading in the large bedroom, diminishing slowly between the cracks in the heavy, ornate drapes. The darkness was such that most people would have illuminated the lamps or at least bade a house elf to do so, but instead the sole inhabitant of the room did nothing but sit on the edge of the bed, staring at his hands. Occasionally he would absentmindedly turn the heavy ring on his right hand ever-so-slightly, as if to perhaps pretend it wasn't there and then, feeling the weight of the metal against skin, ease it away so that it left his consciousness. But it was futile. The ring was there now, would be there tomorrow and would in all reality be there until he died. Giving it away, as he had received it, was never going to be an option.

The small sound of the door opening behind him caused his posture to immediately change; no slumping was allowed. Instead he assumed the bolt upright form that had been drilled into him from his earliest memories.

"Scorpius..." Astoria's voice was soft, tender. "It's so dark in here."

He flinched slightly and blinked several times as the lights came on. "I like the dark."

With a sigh she sat down on the bed next to him, brushing his hair back from his head. At times he was just like his father. "You should go talk to him. He's in the study."

"Why?" His head snapped towards her. "I did what he wanted, I'm the official heir to the House of Malfoy now. Now and forever."

"Scorpius, sweetie...for me. Just go talk to him for me. Please? Just this once, there are things you need to know."

He closed his eyes and felt it hard to swallow. _Things I need to know_. He could imagine exactly what he would be told, things he would be forced to do, things…

"Please?"

There were many things Scorpius could do, but he could not deny his mother when she said the word that way. He could almost hear all the history flowing through the simple word, how she had helped protect him from the madness of his grandfather Malfoy, how she'd helped protect him from those horrible years before Hogwarts, how she'd helped protect him from...his father. "Ok." The word came out slowly but it seemed like an iron gate had slammed shut on everything that he'd hoped for, now gone.

-ooo-

His father was sitting in the massive leather chair by the window, a small lamp lit on the side table, reading a very old book. He hadn't noticed when Scorpius had entered the room, giving the son a chance to study the father. Mostly bald, with the white hair cropped close around the sides, glasses perched on the end of his nose, but surprisingly no longer wearing the formal robes from the ceremony earlier that night; instead he wore a pair of jeans, a somewhat lumpy jumper over an old shirt and slippers without stockings, causing his pale, thin ankles to almost glow in the light.

After a deep breath Scorpius cleared his throat. "Mum said you wanted to see me."

"Ah. Yes." Draco took off his glasses, set them on the side table, and motioned towards the small chintz chair that was next to his. "Just move your mother's knitting."

Once the seating space was clear Scorpius sat down. At first he thought of waiting to see what Malfoy madness was going to be his life but instead a feeling of anger washed through him and spoiling his father's planned speech was too much to resist. "Dad, I'm gay."

That did take Draco by surprise, as his open mouth stopped wide open, whatever words now gone. He closed his mouth, lips forming into something almost of a smirk and nodded. "Yes, and…?"

"But...I'm your heir!" Scorpius leaned forward. "Which means I have to provide an heir for the House of Malfoy."

Draco nodded. "Yeeessss….that's how that works."

"So you're going to make me marry a witch?"

"Merlin's balls, no." Draco sat back in his chair, crossed his legs and readjusted the book on his lap. "Why trap yourself into something that would eat at you for the rest of your life? I do expect the surrogate witch to have a thorough background check."

Falling back into his seat Scorpius slumped and scowled. "Have to make sure she's a proper pureblood?"

"Are you quite determined to make me angry? Have you learned nothing from my mistakes, from the mistakes this family has made? Magical, yes. I expect your surrogate to be magical. The family book..." he closed the book, marking his place with an index finger, and lifted it up. "...the book makes no references to pureblood heirs, believe it or not. Abraxas and those before him, that was their influence."

There were many times that Scorpius had felt confused, none more than when he had been sorted into Ravenclaw, but now he felt as the ship had come completely away from the moorings. "So you don't care that I'm gay? You knew and you made me your heir anyway?"

Almost under his breath Draco muttered "Astoria was right, should have been ages ago." After a steadying breath he tossed the book on the floor and leaned towards his son. "I have not been a very good father to you. I have made many mistakes, and for that I am truly sorry. But the one thing I have always tried to teach you is that you define what the Malfoy name means for you. It's too late for me, even with everything I've done. I've made my peace with that. I wasn't going to name you heir, but then I realized I don't have to make an old, bitter, dead man happy any more than you do. So you're gay? Fine. You're a better man than I was at your age and you'll be a better man than I'll ever be. Fine someone to make you happy. It's a bloody miracle that your mother and I...enough of that. Find someone to make you happy. And someday, when it's time, have a baby. You're my heir, but most importantly you're my son."

For a moment both men sat still, as if any semblance of movement or sound would break things into pieces, but then they both stood. Draco held out his arms, Scorpius embracing him after a step. Eventually they broke apart slightly until Draco rested a hand on the back of his son's neck in a comforting gesture.

"A word of advice, though? Have more than one. It was rather lonely."


End file.
